THE raids that the Rapid Action Battalion carried on Sunday at different government offices in a number of districts, arresting at least 500 brokers for harassing service seekers, come as both assuring and concerning. The raids are welcome in that it is the law enforcers’ responsibility to facilitate people’s access to their legitimate rights and services and that the raids are likely to send a strong message against the brokers, who have continued to harass service seekers. What, however, comes as concerning is that when such raids are conducted by different law enforcement agencies sporadically, the pesky presence of brokers has remained unabated. A mobile court of the Rapid Action Battalion conducted, to mention, a raid in Dhaka Medical College Hospital on the day and jailed 30 brokers for deceiving patients at the hospital and taking them to other private hospitals while in a similar raid on June 10, about 24 brokers were arrested for the same offence, suggesting that the raids have been almost, if not totally, inconsequential. The situation at other government agencies is nothing better as brokers routinely impede service seekers’ access to legitimate services.

What appears to be amiss in such raids is that when the raids may deter some brokers for some time, they never break the unholy connection between brokers and government officials that are believed to have majorly contributed to a culture of exploiting service seekers. Without paying adequate attention to the connection between corrupt officials and brokers at government offices and agencies such as hospitals, land record and settlement offices, law enforcement agencies, road transport authorities, courts, educational institutions, passport offices and others, it is impossible to make a marked change only with raids against the dozens of brokers, who find one way or another to return to their job. The Transparency International, Bangladesh published several reports on rampant corruption involving brokers and officials in the recent past showing the extent and impact of corruption at government offices. A 2018 Transparency International, Bangladesh survey on the bribery scene in the country revealed that an estimated Tk 106.89 billion was paid in bribe in 2017, which was 3.4 per cent of the national budget that time, by people both in the urban and rural areas while seeking public services. People are routinely compelled to surrender to corrupt service providers, brokers and poor delivery systems that are characterised by the institutionalisation of bribery and a lack of accountability.

Episodic raids by law enforcers are not designed, or effective enough, to break the unholy nexus between officials and brokers that erodes people’s access to services that they are entitled to. In such a situation, the authorities must enhance their efforts to break the nexus and bring both the brokers and corrupt officials to justice to ensure people’s unhindered access to services. Unless the nexus is broken, the harassing presence of brokers and widespread corruption at government offices will but continue.